To Brexit or not to Brexit …

On Thursday, Britain will decide her future – one outside the EU, or one of continued tolerance of a bureaucracy run amuck.

If I lived in Britain today, I’d vote for leaving the EU. For one simple reason: nation-states are what they are, and they deserve to be sovereign in their decisions.

The EU is not viable in its current form, that is, a wannabe version of the United States of Europe. Ridiculous decisions are made by unelected bureaucrats (the dregs who didn’t amount to much in their respective home countries and were therefore sent to live on the “farm” in Brussels) and imposed on defenceless, once-proud nation-states.

By comparison, and contrast, each Canadian province enjoys more autonomy than any EU member-state. And no Canadian would ever accept being governed and ruled by unelected bureaucrats living in some distant city or country.

For that matter, Quebec would have long since separated from Canada had it not held its ground and obtained a lot of concessions from “English Canada” – Quebec, for example, has never signed the Canadian constitution and has only one official and recognized language, French. In fact, Quebecers admire Switzerland for how it has remained steadfast, no mean feat given its geographic location, about not joining the EU.

Britain is a very special case. People there have never considered themselves “European”, or even part of Europe – hence the oft-heard question, “Have you ever been to Europe?”

It is a country with a long and proud tradition, and it would be a shame if any of that were lost.

Don’t misunderstand: some of those advocating for a Leave vote in Britain are driven by sinister motives, such as xenophobia and racism, but the majority of Brexiteers simply want nothing more than sever the useless ties with a bureaucracy that doesn’t even have a semblance of sanity anymore.

People from all over the world have flocked to Britain, and this won’t change even if Britain leaves the EU. Norway and Switzerland aren’t EU members, but their borders are as open as anyone else’s – and that’s a good thing. Allowing people to move from point A to point B without much red tape is precisely what this world, and not only Europe, needs a lot more of. Such a scheme (long overdue) would also boost the economies of Canada, the US and Mexico.

The introduction of the euro currency was a lousy idea, because there was only one country strong enough to adopt this artificial currency: Germany. For all others, it has been an unmitigated disaster. Britain could have adopted the currency, but was smart enough to stand aside.

In short, the EU should be nothing more and nothing less than a free-trade area with free movement of goods, services and people (labour). The entire bureaucracy in Brussels ought to be dismantled, and every single one of those bureaucrats should be sent back to their home countries and assigned jobs that they are actually qualified for (such as crossing guards, street sweepers, crime scene cleaners, etc.).

And speaking as a translator, please, don’t get me started about the poor quality of “translations”, including of official texts such as laws and directives, produced by EU “translators” (term applied VERY loosely).

If I still lived in Britain, I would have voted for Brexit ages ago, and I most certainly would cast a vote to leave the EU this Thursday.